A scholarly paper authored by Michigan Law Dean Evan Caminker turned up in a pretty high-profile place today: a Supreme Court opinion, authored by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in the Affordable Care Act cases.

The paper, "State Sovereignty and Subordinacy" (login may be required), was published in the Columbia Law Review in 1995. Justice Ginsburg cites it while discussing the considerable amount of autonomy the states retain in administering Medicaid. She argues that far from disempowering state agencies and bringing them into strict federal orbit, Medicaid is designed to promote "cooperative federalism."

Caminker's work, Justice Ginsburg writes, also argues that cooperative federalism can preserve "a significant role for state discretion in achieving specified federal goals, where the alternative is complete federal preemption of any state regulatory role."

The opinion is available online. Search on the word "Caminker" to find the citation.